Problems with EON

[thecookiemonster]

Hi. 

 

I've only been with EON since around September. 

 

I need some advice regarding a bill. 

 

I was paying a fixed £52 per month bill.

However, they are saying I've used nearly £700 of electric in 3 months.

 

I've not long had a £140 credit applied to my account for the warm home discount and they are asking for £580 so if you take the warm home discount into account my bill would have been around £720.

 

I'm not paying a penny for this, I certainly won't pay money for electric that I haven't used. 

 

I'm a single person living in a small flat and I use very little electric.

 

They did mention about maybe the meter was faulty but they don't seem bothered about that now and just say from the images I've sent it looks ok and they just want the money.

 

Anything I can do about this as I'm happy to let them take me to court or whatever they want to do because I'm not paying for electric that I haven't used.

 

Hope someone can help.

 

Thanks.

[dx100uk]

have you all the bills to date

and have they been using estimated readings to calc them?

if the meter is suspect

get a formal complaint IN WRITING running and demand a check meter is fitted.

 

dx

 

[thecookiemonster]

Thanks for your reply.

 

I'm not sure I do but I can request them can't I, I do remember it was only around £40 in debit in January so its jumped massively.

 

The estimated bills were around £500 but after providing readings the bill has actually gone up. 

 

I've already made formal complaints via email but I'm still being fobbed off.

 

 

 

[dx100uk]

I would WRITE. don't use email or phone

send them an sar too.

get all the paperwork/bills

[ploddertom]

If you have only been with them since September have they used the meter reading you gave them on joining or a "deemed reading given by the industry"?

[ericsbrother]

have you taken meter readngs and compared these with the figures they are using?  What happens if you turn your supply off at night, will you plunge the entire block into darkness? You can try turning everything off for an hour and see if the meter has moved.If it has then somehting else is connected to your supply. It wont hurt your fridge/freezer to be off for that time.

you did take a meter reading when you moved in didnt you? If not what are they basing their figures on?  theyir bills should give some indication and a starting pint for you to complain.

[thecookiemonster]

Looking at December's bill it was showing as £179 but then a warm home discount of £140 was applied taking it down to £39 so since then it's jumped up to £565 definitely not right to use £500 in 3 months. 

 

 

 

Looking at that something is badly wrong look at the readings and it says in September that meter readings weren't used for billing. 

 

I'm on a £52 per month fixed tariff. 

 

Bare in mind this is just electric as I have no gas and I live in a flat on my own and don't use a lot of electric. 

Edited April 2, 2019 by thecookiemonster

[ploddertom]

Looking at your bill I assume you have the likes of an Economy 7 meter where you have 2 rates - daytime & nightime. It would appear from the readings that your nightime (Low rate) seems OK but your daytime (Normal rate) is excessively high - unless of course they have been transcribed the wrong way round. You need to do as ericsbrother has suggested in Post 6. What sort of heating do you have - storage radiators perhaps?

[thecookiemonster]

Yeah economy 7 and storage heaters but they aren’t used much.

[AndyOrch]

Interesting........

 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/Energy-mis-selling-complaints/

[ploddertom]

I would also assume that you get an afternoon boost to the night rate - as the Low Rate lists both Rate 2 & Rate 4. Have you had chance to do as requested re turning everything off yet? I would say that your Low Rate looks as if it is OK but your normal rate is racking up approx 1000 units per month.

 

Do you know which Eon Plan you are on and do you also know how much you are paying per Kwh

Edited April 3, 2019 by ploddertom

[thecookiemonster]

I’m going to run a meter test tomorrow to see if it goes up when absolutely everything is off.

 

I'm on a fixed £52 per month tariff.

 

Actually I was on a fixed £52 tariff looks like because I cancelled my direct debit I pay for what I use now. Although when logging in it states I’m on a 12 month tariff from September 2018 until September 2019.

 

It states I’ve used 7285.74kwh in the day and 1492.26kwh at night.

[dx100uk]

best idea is to kill you main breaker in your consumer unit

see if it stops going up

then go around and turn everything off.

then turn the main breaker back on.

if you get reading then

drop each of the other breakers one at a time and find the circuit the appliance you've left on is connected too.

I once found 4 400w bar heaters that an upstairs neighbour had installed as underfloor heating for his flat running of the gentleman downstairs' lighting circuit...

[E.ON Company Rep: Malc]

Hello thecookiemonster and I totally agree, no one should pay for electricity they haven’t used. There are a few things your posts suggest and hope you don’t mind if I ramble on a bit.

Thank you for posting the meter readings from your online account. I can see we’ve actual readings recorded. Have we used these on your bills? If not, what readings have we used? You can see the bills on your online account and can print them off if this is better.

My first thought is similar to ploddertom. Two rate Economy 7 meters are often fitted in all electric properties with storage heaters and I’m wondering if we’re billing the wrong way round with day usage charged at night rates and night usage at day rates. To check, please take two sets of readings at different times of the day and at least two hours apart. This will show us which part of your meter is recording day usage and which part is recording night usage. If we’re billing the wrong way round, we’ll fix the problem and rebill your account correctly.

Storage heaters are insulated boxes containing bricks with electric elements running through them. They charge up during the cheaper off-peak times. The bricks retain the heat which is then released gradually throughout the day. As a result, I’d expect the night usage to be a higher proportion of the total than these readings show.

The off-peak period covers 7 continuous hours at night. The times vary depending on the meter and region. Typically, these hours run from midnight to 7am or 1am to 8am. We can soon let you know the exact times. All electricity, not just the heating/hot water, used during the off-peak times is charged at the cheaper rate. Make sure you use as much as needed during this period. I know these aren’t particularly sociable hours and timers might help here on high load appliances like washing machines, tumble dryers etc.

Check the time switch on the meter is set correctly. Let us know if it’s more than a couple of hours out. We’ll come and fix it.

Have you had chance to do as ericsbrother has suggested and turn off your supply? If you have, is the meter still moving?

Check the serial number on the meter. Is it the same as the one on your bills? If not, we could be billing to the wrong meter. This is known as a crossed meter. They tend to happen mainly on new builds or in blocks of flats where there are several different meters in a communal area. It's where the meter details become mixed up between different properties. Again, this can be fixed and the account rebilled correctly.

We'll be happy to check if the meter is faulty. As dx says, we can fit a check meter. It’s important to rule out all other possibilities first. This is because we charge in advance of a visit. This fee will be refunded in full if the meter turns out to be faulty. Before arranging a test, we’ll also go through your usage to see if we can find any evidence to suggest your meter is faulty or if we can reassure you it's working as it should. Previous tests have shown, only approximately 1 in 200 meter checks come back as faulty and we don't want you to pay unnecessarily.

How do you heat your water? If you’ve a water immersion heater, make sure this is only on when you need hot water. I’ve often come across situations where these are inadvertently left on 24/7. This is expensive and will lead to much higher bills.

It looks like you’re on a Fixed Tariff. This means the unit rates per kWh won’t change for the duration of the agreement. Direct Debits will change where the usage goes up or down. As you’ve cancelled your Direct Debit, you’ll be paying a higher daily standing charge.

You’ve done the right thing in raising a formal complaint. A Complaint Manager will investigate and offer a resolution based on their findings. If this isn’t to your satisfaction, the complaint will go to our Reviewers for a second look. They’ll either uphold the original resolution or offer an alternative. If this still isn’t satisfactory, they’ll send a Final Resolution Offer letter with details of how to approach the Energy Ombudsman for an independent assessment. There’s more about how we look after complaints on our website.

Sorry to go on thecookiemonster and for all the questions.

Malc